San Diego resident Kevin Christopher Bollaert, 28, has been sentenced to nearly 18 years in prison for operating a web page that allowed anonymous customers to post sexually explicit photographs – usually of former lovers – without their consent. The victims then had to pay Bollaert to take down the photos.

“It’s known as ‘revenge porn’, but it’s actually just an additional kind of sexual harassment,” Hill stated.

“And the individuals who posted the photos in my opinion are guilty of on the web sexual harassment.”

Read Far more: Revenge-porn website operator sentenced to 18 years

Prosecutors said Bollaert’s website, ugotposted.com, broken relationships, cost people jobs and led to an attempted suicide.

“Especially on the internet, men and women are in a position to get away with so considerably simply because of the anonymity, and for the reason that of the notion that it’s separate from our lived reality,” said Sinead O’Reilly, a University of Saskatchewan women’s and gender research significant.

“A lot of things come about on the online that aren’t dealt with or even looked at, and ladies have to fight so really hard to get somebody to take a photo down, or get their name removed.”

Ladies’s rights advocates hope Bollaert’s sentence will serve as a reminder that on-line activity is not off-limits in court.

“I consider this is a excellent step in the correct direction towards consent culture. Consent is extremely crucial and we really should all worth it,” O’Reilly explained.

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